In this episode of SF Crossing the Gulf, Karen Burnham and Karen Lord discuss Edgar Mittelholzer’s My Bones and My Flute, a ghost story/thriller from 1955. This leads to a discussion of prose style, craft, imagery, jungles, race, racism, misogyny, and much else. We understand that most people won’t be able to get a hold of this book, so we start off the discussion with plenty of summary to get everyone on the same page. [Spoiler Alert!]

Next week we’ll continue with a discussion of stories from Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life and Others, particularly “Hell is the Absence of God” and start talking about Greg Egan. We’ve decided on the following list of Egan short stories: